(From the correspondent Elvira Terranova) – “I arrived from Holland, because I couldn’t wait to hug my sister and her children again after years, I had also brought some toys for the girls, but now I only find coffins with bodies unrecognizable”. Weeping, Mina, Aisha, a 50-year-old lady with a face distorted by despair, originally from Afghanistan, who has been living in Holland for some years. She had arrived in Crotone on Saturday, awaiting the arrival of the boat carrying her sister and her grandchildren, including a 7-year-old girl. “We had also spoken on Saturday evening and my sister had told me that after a few hours they would arrive on the coast of Crotone. Then, at dawn, the tragedy. And now I find myself here, at the Palasport crying over the bodies of my loved ones . This is not right”, the woman despairs. Taking care of the woman is Francesca Cardamone of Sos Villaggio dei Bambini, who in recent days has heard many sad stories, all similar, of failed reunions of families distant for years.
Mina has been waiting since yesterday for the procedures for the repatriation of the bodies to start. Today you took part in the protest sit-in organized in front of the Prefecture of Crotone, together with many other relatives of the victims or missing persons. Next to her is another woman, also dressed in black. She too has lost several family members. The stories are all alike, in their desperation. “We arrived by car from Holland – Mina explains to Adnkronos – it was supposed to be a party, instead it is a tragedy”. But Mina isn’t the only one waiting for documents to be able to bring her loved ones home. There are many relatives of hers, mostly from Germany and Holland, who are trying to figure out how to bring the family members who died in the shipwreck back to Afghanistan. Until now, the largest number of requests for repatriation have come from Germany and Afghanistan. “I will consult with the Farnesina to see how to solve the problem of the bodies returning to Afghanistan. It will be necessary to have them transit through a country that has relations with Kabul”, specified Khaled Zekriya, the Afghan ambassador to Italy appointed by the old Kabul government before the return to power of the Taliban, who in recent days came to pay tribute to the victims.
The ambassador went to Cutro beach. “The coffins of family members who have not given their consent to be buried in Italy will certainly be transferred to Kabul,” he explained. Meanwhile, a few hours ago, the Fire Brigade and the Coast Guard recovered the body of another child. He was three years old or so. And this morning another one, too small. Which brings the number of victims to 70.
Source-www.adnkronos.com